Overexpression Bombyx mori HEXIM1 Facilitates Immune Escape of Bombyx mori Nucleopolyhedrovirus by Suppressing BmRelish-Driven Immune Responses

Guanping Chen; Yuedong Li; Xiangshuo Kong; Shudi Zhao; Jiale Li; Xiaofeng Wu

doi:10.3390/v14122636

Overexpression Bombyx mori HEXIM1 Facilitates Immune Escape of Bombyx mori Nucleopolyhedrovirus by Suppressing BmRelish-Driven Immune Responses

Viruses. 2022 Nov 25;14(12):2636. doi: 10.3390/v14122636.

Authors

Guanping Chen^{1

2}, Yuedong Li^{1

2}, Xiangshuo Kong^{1

2}, Shudi Zhao^{1

2}, Jiale Li^{1

2}, Xiaofeng Wu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ College of Animal Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310058, China.
² Key Laboratory of Silkworm and Bee Resource Utilization and Innovation of Zhejiang Province, Hangzhou 310000, China.

Abstract

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus (BmNPV), a typical arthropod-specific enveloped DNA virus, is one of the most serious pathogens in silkworm farming, but the potential mechanisms of the evasion of innate immune responses from BmNPV infection are still poorly understood. HEXIM1 is an RNA-binding protein, best known as an inhibitor of positive transcription elongation factor b (P-TEFb), which controls transcription elongation by RNA polymerase II. In this study, Bombyx mori HEXIM1 (BmHEXIM1) was cloned and characterized, and its expression was found to be remarkably upregulated after BmNPV infection. Furthermore, BmHEXIM1 was detected to increase the proliferation of BmNPV, and its full length is essential for assisting BmNPV immune escape by suppressing BmRelish-driven immune responses. This study brought new insights into the mechanisms of immune escape of BmNPV and provided theoretical guidance for the breeding of BmNPV-resistant silkworm varieties.

Keywords: BmHEXIM1; BmNPV; immunity escape; viral proliferation.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Bombyx*
Immunity, Innate
Insect Proteins / genetics
Insect Proteins / metabolism
Transcription Factors / metabolism

Substances

Insect Proteins
Transcription Factors

Supplementary concepts

Bombyx mori nucleopolyhedrovirus

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31972619/32172793), the Natural Science Foundation of Zhejiang Province (Z20C170008).